Ireland Women off to convincing start with victory over Thailand at World T20 Qualifier

The Ireland Women’s cricket team completed the perfect start to their ICC World T20 Qualifier campaign with a convincing 7-wicket victory over Thailand in Utrecht today.

Ireland Captain Laura Delany won the toss and sent Thailand into bat beneath blue, sunny skies.

The Thailand innings struggled to get going, with only 31-year old left-hand top order batter Nattaya Boochatham getting to grips with the Irish attack. Her innings of 41 off 50 balls included six boundaries, and was her highest T20 International score.

In response, opener Clare Shillington continued her good form with an innings of 38 off 32 balls (4 x fours, 1 x six), following on from her innings of 37 on Thursday against Papua New Guinea. Two wickets in two balls in the 12th over saw the loss of Shillington and the in-form Gaby Lewis, but Isobel Joyce (15*) and Laura Delany (12*) demonstrated cool-heads and steered Ireland home with 3.4 overs to spare.

For Thailand, captain Sornnarin Tippoch was the pick of the bowlers with 3-12 from four overs.

Player of the match Clare Shillington said:

“Obviously delighted to get the win – that was first job done. Our fielding has let us done again a little bit, which is an area we usually pride ourselves on. So we’ll be looking to improve on that for the game against Scotland tomorrow, and also a few areas we’ll be looking to fix by the back-end of the tournament in order to peak at that stage.”

Ireland’s second match in this Qualifier tournament is tomorrow against Scotland, who had a convincing nine-wicket victory over Uganda today.